Instagram starts filtering out hipster pics on Twitter

Instagram has disabled the ability of Twitter users to view its photo-futzed images in full, and CEO Kevin Systrom says he eventually wants people to come to his site rather than any other platform.

Systrom says the move is because Instagram has made a number of improvements in its own site and apps, and it thinks users will prefer being able to view oddly filtered photographs that way.

Twitter confirmed that Instagram has disabled its integration with Twitter cards on Wednesday.

"I think this is an evolution of where we are with where we want links with our content to go," Systrom told the LeWeb technology conference on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journalreports. "We want that to be on Instagram.com because we think that's a better user experience," he said.

Instagram's purchase by twitter rival Facebook has nothing to do with it, of course.

"The large majority of our photos are actually shared to Facebook and to Twitter, this is more of a one-off trying to figure out specifically with our Twitter integration what it should look like," Systrom said, possibly ironically. "Twitter and Instagram both want the best user experience, and both agree our current implementation is not the correct experience for users."

Ever since Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg took the apparently personal decision to plunk down nearly a billion dollars for the faded-pic free service, there have been predictions that other social networking firms were going to find it more difficult to work with the Instagram team. Facebook made all sorts of reassuring comments to regulators about the merger, but the screws are slowly tightening on the competition.

Meanwhile, the absorption of the hipsters is progressing, with last month's launch of Instagram web profiles that look more than a little like Facebook pages. Facebook is also currently working to change its terms and conditions to allow easier sharing of Instagram and other affiliate data.

With a growing app base and a need to start owning its customers more so that Facebook can see a return on investment, it looks like users are going to be encouraged to shift away from too much integration with other platforms.

But it's not as though Twitter has much to complain about Instagram's move, since it is quite fond of using similar tactics itself. The company is currently helping the FTC with their inquiries into whether or not the firm's blocking of UberMedia and other competitors last year was anticompetitive. ®